Samson as a type

Samson, as a type, sets before us the principle of Nazariteship,
entire separation to God, the source of strength in conflict with
our enemies, looked at as enemies who seek to gain the upper hand
amongst the people of God, within their own limits and in their own
heart.

The Philistines, in the land, assume dominion over God's
people

The Philistines were not a scourge, a chastisement sent from
without; they dwelt in Israel's own territory, in the land of
promise. Undoubtedly, before this, other nations whom the
faithlessness of the people had left in the midst of Canaan had
been a snare to them, leading them to intermarriage with idolaters,
and to the worship of false gods; and Jehovah had given them up
into the hands of their enemies. But now, those who had been
suffered to remain in the conquered land assume dominion over
Israel.

The principle of Nazariteship

Here, then, that which can give victory and peace to the heirs
of promise is the strength imparted by separation from all that
belongs to the natural man, and entire consecration to God, so far
as it is realised. This Nazariteship is spiritual power, or rather
that which characterises it, when the enemy is within the land. For
Samson judged Israel during the dominion of the Philistines
(chap. 15: 20). Afterwards Samuel, Saul, and above all David,
entirely changed the state of things.

Christ as a Nazarite

When the Canaanite, when the power of the enemy, reigns in the
land, Nazariteship alone can give power to one who is faithful. It
is a secret unknown to the men of the world. Christ exemplified it
in its perfection. Evil reigned amongst the people. The walk of
Christ was a walk apart, separate from evil. He was one of the
people, but, like Levi (Deut. 33: 9), He was not of them. He was a
Nazarite. But we must distinguish with respect to this.

Morally, Christ was as separate from sinners while on earth, as
He is now. But, outwardly He was in their midst; and, as the
witness and expression of grace, He was spiritually in their midst
also. Since His resurrection He is completely separate from
sinners. The world sees Him not, and will see Him no more save in
judgment.

Separation from the world

It is in this last position, and as having put on this character
of entire separation from the world, that the assembly, that
Christians, are in connection with Him. Such a High Priest became
us. The assembly retains its strength, Christians retain their
strength, so far only as they abide in this state of complete
separation, which the world does not understand and in which it
cannot participate. Human joy and sociability have no part in it;
divine joy and the power of the Holy Ghost are there. The life of
our adorable Saviour was a life of gravity, always grave and
generally straitened (not in Himself, for His heart was a springing
well of love, but because of the evil that pressed Him on every
side): I speak of His life and of His own heart. With regard to
others, His death opened the flood-gates, in order that the full
tide of love might flow over poor sinners.

The two joys

Nevertheless, whatever may have been the Lord's habitual
separateness, He could say, with reference to His disciples, "These
things I speak in the world that they might have my joy
fulfilled in themselves." It was the best of wishes, divine
joy instead of human joy. The day will come when these two joys
shall be united, when He will again drink wine, though in a new
way, with His people in the kingdom of His Father; and all will be
His people. But at present this cannot be; evil reigns in the
world. It reigned in Israel, where there ought to have been
righteousness. It reigns in Christendom, where holiness and grace
should be manifested in all their beauty.

The only means of enjoying God's strength

The separation unto God, of which we have been speaking, is
under these circumstances the only means of enjoying the strength
of God. It is the essential position of the assembly. If it has
failed in it, it has ceased to manifest the essential character of
its Head, in connection with itself, "separate from sinners, and
made higher than the heavens"; it is but a false witness, a proof
among the Philistines that Dagon is stronger than God; it is a
blind prisoner.

The judgment of God

Nevertheless it is remarkable that, whenever the world draws
away, by its allurements, that which God has separated from it unto
Himself, this brings down the judgment of God upon the world, and
leads to its ruin. Look at Sarah in the house of Pharaoh; and in
this instance, Samson, blind and prisoner in the hands of the
Philistines; and again also Sarah in the house of Abimelech,
although God, on account of the integrity of his heart, did but
chasten the latter.

The Nazarite represented in Christ, the assembly and an
individual Christian

The Nazarite then represents Christ, such as He was here below
in fact and by necessity; and also such as He now is completely and
in full right, seated on the right hand of God in heaven, hidden in
God, where our life is hid with Him. The. Nazarite represents the
assembly or an individual Christian, so far as the one and the
other are separated from the world and devoted to God, and keep the
secret of this separation.

This is the assembly's position, the only one which God
recognises. The assembly, being united to Christ who is separate
from sinners and made higher than the heavens, cannot be His in any
other manner. It may be unfaithful to it, but this is the standing
given it with Christ. It can be recognised in no other.

The neglect of Nazariteship shown in Samson

Samson represents to us also the tendency of the assembly, and
of the Christian to fall away from this position, a tendency which
does not always produce the same amount of evil fruit, but which
causes the inward and practical neglect of Nazariteship, and soon
leads to entire loss of strength, so that the assembly gives itself
up to the world. God may still use it, may glorify Himself through
the havoc it makes in the enemy's land (which ought to be its own);
He may even preserve it from the sin to which the slippery path it
treads would lead it. But the state of mind which brought it there
tends to yet lower downfalls.